Technoeconomic Analysis of Power-to-X (P2X) Value Chains

Commercial maturity of Power-to-X (P2X) technologies to utilise renewable energy resources for electrochemical conversion of abundant molecules like water, CO2, and N2, into green renewable energy-carriers, fuels and chemical feedstocks have opened new avenues for deep-routed decarbonisation. A transition that is well underway, with 25 of the world’s largest and leading economies introducing policies and incentives to kick start the P2X economies, leading to large scale up of electrolyser manufacturing, renewable energy deployment for P2X and a commitment of investment of ~240 billion USD.

Yet only 4 - 10% of these investment commitments have reached a final investment decision (FID). The critical bottlenecks are the current high cost of electrolysis technology, renewable electricity, and low capital efficiency of the projects due to intermittent and variable operation of solar/wind energy sources which results in high production costs making them unviable against their fossil fuel counterparts.  However, there is expectation that the cost of P2X will decrease with ongoing cost reduction in electrolyser and renewable energy production, achievement of economies of scale and optimisation of project designs. Therefore, in the meantime while the cost remain high and relatively incompetent for large scale offtake, there is a need to find niche utilisation opportunities to enable scale up of technology.

This PhD project will focus on the technoeconomic analysis (TEA) of various Power-to-X conversion pathways, with an emphasis on modelling end-use scenarios (such as chemical manufacturing, green steel production, etc.). In order to inform and determine the commercial feasibility of these pathways, the student will use and build on existing TEA models and frameworks developed at GlobH2E. Hence a background in technoeconomic analysis, project design, simulation tools like Aspen/DWSIM, Excel VBA Programming, HOMER, excel and python coding would be beneficial, but not essential.

• $37,684 per annum (2024 rate) for 3.5 years

Eligibility

• Domestic and International applicants
• PhD only
• A background in technoeconomic analysis, project design, simulation tools like Aspen/DWSIM, Excel VBA Programming, HOMER, excel and python coding would be beneficial, but not essential.

How to apply

Please email your CV and academic transcript to Dr Rahman Daiyan at r.daiyan@unsw.edu.au.